Bhor : Movie Review

Bhor (Dawn) Movie Review: Realistic To Its Core!

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 Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

“Hope begins in the dark; the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing. The dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” – Anne Lamot

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Kay Granger says, “Human rights are not a privilege granted by a few, they are a liberty entitled to all, and human rights, by definition, include the rights of all humans, those in the dawn of life, the dusk of life, or the shadows of life”. I think Bhudhini in Kamakhya Narayan Singh's Bhor’ might have taken this quote seriously without even actually having read or heard about this. 

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It is interesting to note that Bhor’s journey itself is so inspiring that every single independent filmmaker can draw hope and strength from it. This film which was heaped with praise and great reviews internationally for its fantastic and realistic portrayal of societal issues like open defecation, child marriage, women empowerment and social and economic disparity existing in Indian villages found it hard to find a cheering audience and packed theatres in its country then. The film has received critical acclaim at more than thirty film festivals. The film went on to win the best director award at the Ottawa Indian Film Festival and two awards in the Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival of Boston. After a long journey, the film has released on the OTT Platform MX Player and all of a sudden it finds itself in the limelight again for all good reasons. 

Image Courtesy:  MX player

Bhor reminds me of the film Gutrun Gutargun by Pratik Sharma and Asmita Sharma was equally a good movie highlighting women empowerment and open defecation. Gutrun Gutargun also had its challenges in getting a fair release in theatres and had to file a case for alleged copyright issues against Toilet Ek Prem Katha makers in the Jaipur High Court. Finally, Gutrun Gutargun got released on the OTT platforms like Hungama and MX Player in 2020.

Image Courtesy: MX Player

The film Bhor portrays the harsh realities of the Musahar community in Bihar and thereby opens a window to the world to experience a world of the underprivileged and their struggle for human rights. In Bihar, the word Musahar means mus + ahar  (Rat Eater) based on their traditional occupation of catching rats. The musahar community's literacy rate is minimal and in the case of women, it’s abysmal.

Image Courtesy: MX Player

Savaree Gaur as Bhudhini a school going untouchable girl is married off to a young villager Sugan (Devesh Ranjan). Devesh Ranjan and Savaree are fabulous actors. They have slipped into the skin of their characters so well that the viewer feels their innocence, hope, love, bonding, challenges and agony all through the film. Nalneesh Neel is an exceptional actor and has delivered a commendable performance as Chamku the father-in-law of Bhudhini. Chamku’s drunken stupor, language, mannerisms, acceptance of his fate as a Musahar and his docility towards his master moves us to tears and at the same time make us love this man for his honesty and bonding for his family.

Image Courtesy: MX Player

Another actor worth mentioning here is Amarendra Sharma who plays the role of Bhukan. Amarendra Sharma was also seen in the film Batla House as one of the police officers in John Abraham’s team. Amarendra Sharma is one among many talented actors who have landed in Bollywood and is all set to leave his mark here. Punya Prasun Bajpai enacts well what he is good at as a journalist. His presence as a journalist in the film adds value and credibility to his role played because of his progressive and secular track record in the media circle. Pavleen Gujral as Madamji in Bhor (The Angry Indian Goddesses actress) looks different here because of her deglamorized looks in Bhor as a village teacher.

 

Image Courtesy: MX Player

In short, Bhor is a must-watch because of its compelling social message and for Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s courage and vision to make this film his debut film. The last scene of the film hits hard for at the end of the day the underprivileged, workers, peasants and the poor are displaced, they remain a migrant or a refugee in their own country. The city gives them money but they have no worth and the village gives them open space but chain them in the casteists, patriarchal and feudal systems. Bhor is a bugle for all of us to stand for the basic human rights of the common people of our country. True nationalism is beyond religion and I believe it’s high time we realize this truth. Finally, watch Bhor on MX Player.

PEN Movie Rating: 3.5/5

Cast: Nalneesh Neel, Savree Sri Gaur, Devesh Ranjan, Amarendra Sharma, Pavleen Gujral, Punya Prasun Bajpai, Rajeev Panday,

Genre:  Social Drama

Director: Kamakhya Narayan Singh

Creative Producer: Abhinandan Sekhri

Producer: Anjani Kumar Singh

Executive Producer: Ranjan Chauhan, Aditya Aman

Director of Photography: Jogendranath Panda

Editor: Navnita Sen

Background Music: Bapi-Tutul, Sagar Desai, Jessica Weiss

Story, Screenplay and Dialogues: Ranjan Chauhan, Kamakhya Narayan                                                               Singh, Bhasker Vishwanathan

Music Director: Gulraj Singh

Cinematography: 

Art Director: Mrinal Das, Alok Haldar

Production Companies: Gyanesh Films Production 

OTT Platform: MX Player 

Release Date: 05 February 2021

Duration: 91 Minutes

Language: Hindi

 

 

 

Drishyam 2 Movie Review

Drishyam 2 Movie Review: A Film Worth Watching!

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Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

“The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Dhrishaym 2 continues where its prequel left us thinking – “Can anyone defeat a person who is pledged to protect his family? And in the sequel too we come to know that this person can go to any extent to resist his past from haunting him and posing any threat to his family.

Jeethu Joseph is once again successful in portraying a common man’s dilemma, guilt and helplessness when he is compelled to commit a crime that he would not have even imagined in his wildest dreams to do. Jeethu Joseph deserves exceptional appreciation for his deft handling of his story not to make Georgekutty a hero of his act and also not to justify his crime. At the same time, he leaves his viewers to feel the vulnerability, pain, loss, guilt and determination of both the party. 

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Drishyam 2 begins with a man running for cover from the police. Six years have passed and the jail gates are opened for this murder convict to go back to his home not knowing what other things happened in his village on that fateful night when he had murdered his brother-in-law in a drunken brawl. The village has changed and now, a fully functional police station is there quite ignorant about the mystery that lies underneath its structure. The erstwhile cable operator Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is now in a new avatar. He now owns a cinema theatre named after his wife Rani (Meena). He is busy managing the shows, collections and pursuing his newfound love to produce movies. He has a very private life with his two grown-up daughters and his God-fearing wife.

Life is not the same for Georgekutty and his family anymore, they live in constant fear of being caught, they know that they are still the talk of the town, they are cautious to strangers and the villagers enquiring about what happened on that fateful night when Varun the son of ex Inspector general of Police Anjali Prabhakar (Asha Sharath) went missing. The family silently deals with the much-traumatised elder daughter (Ansiba Hassan) and her epilepsy after the sad incident that changed their life completely. The younger one seems to have overcome the sad past and is all set to vroom into the future with her gen x friends.  Georgekutty is often found playing the role of a bridge between his traditional and over-cautious wife and his younger daughter Anu (Esther Anil). 

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The first half takes its time for momentum and is actually more of Georgekutty and the supporting characters like the abusive neighbour and his wife who is close to Rani, the murder convict who is just released and his family, Georgekutty’s an ever-loyal hotel owner and his customers, the local auto-rickshaw drivers and the local policemen who try hard to avoid the embarrassment of their failure to nab the alleged culprit Georgekutty.

The seemingly all good and peaceful atmosphere of Georgekutty’s family life changes drastically when they find the policemen knocking at his door. Did Georgekutty underestimate the newly appointed Police officer (Murali Gopi) and his team? Will Georgekutty be able to escape once again being put behind the bars? 

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There are some heartrending moments and dialogues that happens between the two fathers – Georgekutty and Prabhakar (Siddique), the father of Varun, the last scene tugs at your heart for both the families for their loss and pain.

In short, Jeethu Joseph's Dhrishyam 2- The Resumption’ is aptly titled and lives up to the expectations of its viewers. Though the first half is a bit slow it is well compensated by the twists and dramatic turns in the second half of the film. And to sum up, I would like to quote Stephen Arroyo - “Each individual is solely responsible for his or her own actions, and every action will produce a reaction equal in every way to the suit of the action”.

PEN Movie Rating: 3.5/5

Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Asha Sharath, Siddique, Murali Gopi, Ajith Koothattukulam,

 Genre:  Crime Thriller

 Director: Jeethu Joseph

 Producer: Antony Perumbavoor

 Written by: Jeethu Joseph

 Music: Anil Johnson

 Cinematography: Satheesh Kurup

 Edited by: VS Vinayak

 Production Companies: Aashirvad Cinemas

 Distributor: Prime Video

 Release Date: 19 February 2021

 Duration: 153 Minutes

 Language: Malayalam